So who are the most interesting (for whatever reason) villains of the movies and literature?

There are surely better examples, but I have seen and instantly fallen in love with this one recently: The Gentlemen from the episode "Hush" of Buffy. Where is the last time you have seen such decent, friendly demons, who look up to each other and their surroundings with respect and fine manners, and all the time are monstrously creepy, while searching for fitting human hearts? You have to love them, up to the smallest detail (the fine clothes, eternal smiles on their faces, their crazy flunkies in straight-jackets, etc...).

Pesh-Chidin (Eric Schweig), a fearsome-looking, psychotic Apache brujo (witch) who tosses colored dust into adversaries' faces to make them blind and bewildered, pins photos of his victims on his vest, and kidnaps young white girls for slave-trading. He also comes up with lines like this:

Ah, how I have come to love that sense of accomplishment and victory that I get when I pull the wool over the eyes of a clever player character. What DM Triumphs have you had?

Some of mine:1. Finally killing an incredibly powerful, lucky, annoying player's character.2. Finally achieving a TPK (Total Party Kill)3. Finally achieving a TPK using only traps4. Finally working out how to make it so that d**n wizard doesn't steal the spotlight all the d**n time.

The Cigarette Smoking Man and the Well Manicured Man, ciphers who show the main characters that they are in way over their heads, but at the same time fully comprehend that they themselves are in over their heads as well. Conspiracy and paranoia at its finest. (Though this is based mostly on the early to mid series stuff before aliens started popping out of everything ansd the shadowy conspiracy was governmental in nature.)

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel

John Childermass is the epitome of the well to do english gentleman and magician, but has a contempable streak that is revealed when he guns down one of his peers and is taken captive by the strange magic of Faerie.

Star Wars Ep 1: The Phantom Menace

Darth Maul was simply one of the visually stimulating characters to come out of Star Wars since Leia in the slave outfit. He was later done a great diservice by having almost no lines, and what lines he had were horribly cliche. A potential epic villian became a simple cool looking enemy to be defeated.

Final Fantasy Tactics

Tainted king Queklain is the first of the evil Lucavi to be battled by the PC party, resembling a burlap sack monster akin to Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas. However, he avoided such a quint semblance by using some startlingly evil powers, the prime being the Nightmare attack that put some players to sleep, gave others a ticking timer to death, and inflicted some status ailments like poisoning, or such. The fight was difficult, but victory was quite sweet.

Renard is a Terrorist that has a run in with James Bond. He was "capped" in the head by another M16 agent years ago,but the bullet is still in it, killing off his sences. The bullet will kill one day, but in that time, he plans on blow up oil pipe lines in Turkey with a nuclear reactor in a submarine. "James,Welcome to my nuclear family"

What I think is cool about Renard, is that how he has a bullet in his head, making him unable to use any of his sences, including feeling. I like how he picks up that burning, hot rock and just looks at than puts it in one of the other guys hands, burning it badly

A natural born hunter, Zaroff had been plauged by ennui for a great many years until he figured out the most rewarding animal to hunt. The animal relies on more than just instints and fear to survive, but instead, relies upon a cunning almost never seen by hunters. For those of you who haven't guessed just what it is that he hunts yet: it's people

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For the love of meat, shut up! No one wants to hear your emo character background! My hands are literally melting away, and I'm complaining less than you!—K'seliss, Goblins

The ultimate Queen of Mean. I have rarely seen such an overtly nasty and cruel villian, particularly in a Disney work. She's just downright scary, because you never know what she's going to do next. An expert manipulator backed up with some pretty painful magic, making the jump to video games did not make her any less scary. If anything, it was the opposite, because now she counts other massive villians (who are scared of her, by the way) as henchmen.

Jeryth Labyrinth

He's just fun. He's sneaky and can be almost vicious. But really, what makes him one of my favorite villians is his... um, incredibly unique style.

Sloane is an operative of Section 31, an intelligence agency that doesn't exist. He wants to stop the Dominion War at all costs, which usually means defying the letter and spirit of every law on Federation records. What makes him a good villain is his mystery: you never really know exactly what he's up to. He's organized assassinations, turned loyal Starfleet personnel into pawns for his bigger plans, and even after his death he trapped Dr. Julian Bashir and Chief Miles O'Brien in his brain to stop them from trying to peacefully end the war. Sloane's cruelty is matched only by his patriotism for the Federation. For a self-proclaimed good guy, he's quite villainous.

Arvin Sloane, Alias

What is it with the name Sloane? Arvin Sloane is an international terrorist, conspirist, and artifact enthusiast. He runs SD-6, a terrorist organization under the guise of a secret CIA project; thus, all the agents working for Sloane believe they are helping the government, when they are in fact committing acts of terrorism. Sloane fakes his own death and topples the Alliance, an international terrorist organization of which SD-6 was a part of, allowing him to operate freely and beyond their influence. His entire goal in life is to seek all the artifacts of Renaissance artist Milo Rambaldi, a proported prophet who created technologies far beyond his time. To this goal, Sloane will let nothing stop him, abandoning old friends, killing loyal agents, even murdering his own daughter. Sloane does eventually collect all the necessary Rambaldi artifacts to fulfill the prophesy, and he gains immortality in doing so. In a cruel (or just) twist of fate, however, a CIA agent detonantes a string of grenades while they are in Rambaldi's tomb. A boulder falls on Sloane, keeping him hopelessly pinned but forever alive. Sloane's villainy is found in his cold, calculating nature and willingness to sacrifice anything and anyone for his plans.

H. H. Holmes - This guy isn't from a book or movie but he built a hundred-room mansion complete with gas chambers, trap doors, acid vats, lime pits, fake walls and secret entrances. During the 1893 World's Fair he rented rooms to visitors. He then killed most of his lodgers and continued his insurance fraud scheme. He also lured women to his "torture castle" with the promise of marriage. Instead, he would force them to sign over their savings, then throw them down an elevator shaft and gas them to death. In the basement of the castle he dismembered and skinned his prey and experimented with their corpses. How messed up is that?

Rasputin - Many say he was a holy man, those who don't say he was as evil as evil gets. I wanted to throw him in because you honestly aren't allowed to be a good guy if you're the leader of some of the most notorious Russian orgies ever. He could heal the sick, but he was really unbelievably corrupt.

Since I can go for days about the villains of the real world, I'll get on to a fictional villain...

Gargamel (Smurf's) - Sure, he seems like a pretty standard evil wizard. He's got the black robes, and the castle full strange and esoteric spell components and magic paraphenalia. He even has an annoying cat familiar, but you know you're dealing with a true villain when his life is consumed by the need to devour little, blue folk that live in mushrooms.

« Last Edit: August 12, 2006, 05:46:50 PM by Steve... of the shadows »

Ah, how I have come to love that sense of accomplishment and victory that I get when I pull the wool over the eyes of a clever player character. What DM Triumphs have you had?

Some of mine:1. Finally killing an incredibly powerful, lucky, annoying player's character.2. Finally achieving a TPK (Total Party Kill)3. Finally achieving a TPK using only traps4. Finally working out how to make it so that d**n wizard doesn't steal the spotlight all the d**n time.

Another one was Santa Maria from The Shoe of Manitu a neat german western parody, though sometimes bordering on slapstick. Santa Maria was a well-clothed gentlemanly villain, that wanted to get the fabled Indian treasure with his dirty band of lowlives. They way he cared for his men, and stayed clean in the dusty Wild West is memorable.

Flunkie: "We have been riding the whole day... we don't want anymore. We are tired!"Santa Maria rapidly turns and asks, hand on his colt: "Who said that?!"All other bandits start shouting and pointing at him: "Joe, Joe, it was Joe!" - poor bandit looks at them in panic.Santa Maria: "So you are tired, Joe?" Joe nods. "Okay men, Joe gets to bed, all others ride on!"Disappointed bandits: "Ooooooohhh..."

Darth Vader!Somebody had to say it. I actually remember being five years old laying on the brown shag carpet in my old house and watching Darth Vader choke one of his own men with mearly his mind. That is pure awsome Evil. He had a cool outfit even though i was slightly dissappointed when he looked like humpty-dumpty under the mask.

I'm blanking on his actual name, i think it was spike, but the Gremlin with the mowhawk in Gremlins. He was cunning and had plans of world domination. If only it wern't for that darn sun.

Slone (from Alias) was definatly an interesting villan. He primed the drinking water of major cities to cause an apocolypse of violence, killed a monastary of monks to get a rambaldi artifact. Even killed his daughter in a struggle to keep a rambaldi artifact from burning. He was complex and minipulative. all time awsome villan.

The government of Oceana in George Orwell's 1984The original anti-utopia. I insanely loved this book, except for the pages of the handbook that was boring. It's extremely eerie how many parallels can be drawn between INGSOC and the current government of the United States *shivver* War is PeaceFreedom is SlaveryIgnorance is Strength

For those who have seen the series, Legato Bluesummers from Trigun. Someone willing to sacrifice his own life just to make someone who made a point on never taking a life, kill someone; now that's serious villianry right there! He also rates as the most loyal henchman, though in my opinion, it should have been him at the top - he was far better than knives.

Oh hells yeah. Although I think that the sheer fact that someone as scary as Legato served, willingly, Knives, made him scary by default. And as for Vicious, he should have been the villain of the movie.

Some of my own-

Ellen Rimbauer/Rose Red, from Steven King's Rose Red. Just because of the way she messes with people.

Davy Jones from Pirates of the Carribean 2, who is just that cool.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes. He is one of the most diabolical and sadistic villians ever, and one of the few who wins. I like him.

Mama Fortuna, from The Last Unicorn. Not the main villian, but she is such a strong character that she warrants it. Just the sheer fact that she didn't care that a harpy was gonna kill her makes her uber awesome.

I think Iago from the play Othello is the ultimate villain he successfully kills half the characters purly by scheming. But I think he is ultimatly a good villain because at the end of the play you really want him dead.

« Last Edit: February 11, 2007, 02:20:23 PM by necromancer »

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A necromancer is only evil in the eye of those who hate him and only hated by those who do not understand him.

Iago is a perfect classic villian. He is probably the greatest villian the Bard ever madel; and the Bard had a number of great villians.

Richard IIIThe tyrannical, morally vacuous Richard III orders his own brother's execution and the murder of two innocent children because they are obstacles to his kingly ambition. Luckily, Richard's horrific acts come to an end when he is slain by Richmond at the battle of Bosworth Field.

CornwallIn King Lear, a play rife with heinous evildoers, Cornwall towers over them all. Infinitely greedy and exceptionally cruel, Cornwall schemes with his wife, Regan, and sister-in-law, Goneril, to torture Lear and Gloucester. Cornwall delights in gouging out Gloucester's eyes.

EdmundAlso from King Learn, resentful of his illegitimacy, the Earl of Gloucester's bastard son strives to destroy his brother and father to gain Gloucester's title and possessions. Successful in his evil plot to ruin Gloucester, he next plans to kill Cordelia and Lear so that he can rule Britain. Edmund's henchmen strangle Cordelia and Lear dies broken-hearted as a result of his daughter's murder.

My favorite, forever, will be Dr. Doom. A great villian who does what he sees as right and good. Here is a man who has done everything to avenge his mother's wrongful death. He studied science to take over his homeland (which was taken from his bloodline). He mastered magic to free his mother's soul from the devil. He has equipment of such uberpower that he can take on The Avengers and the Fantastic Four and sometimes win. He has tried to take over the world to make the world a better place for the people of the world. (One time he succeeded. He took over the world and changed resource allocation so nobody anywhere was hungry, or without basics, or without care, and was even getting appropriate distribution of good. He then found that that conquerering the world was fun, administrating it was boring....). Admittedly his rule is a bit harsh, but in the end, the peasants will thank him for it.